The honeymoon. This journal isn't nearly as interesting as the journal I did for Europe, largely because instead of the travels of a lone, semi-budget concious backpacker getting into ridiculous situations over the course of a couple months, this is a journal of an exhausted couple of newlyweds relaxing in style after the wedding. Enjoy.
 6/25 Miami 6/26 Isla Colon 6/27 Isla Colon 6/28 Isla Colon 6/29 Boquete 6/30 Boquete 7/01 Panama City |
6/26 - Isla Colon, Panama Made it out of Miami relatively easily, despite last minute emails and website updates on my phone while standing in the security line at the airport. Arriving in Panama City, we had trouble getting through customs seeing as how we kept grabbing the wrong forms (I suspect they passed them out on the plane and we were both asleep at the time). Once we ironed that out, we took a cab to the local airport to catch a plane to Bocas Del Toro (the international airport is about a 45 minute drive outside the capital). We got a good tour of Panama City just driving through; it seems like a city going through growing pains, with high rises along side slums. I was somewhat disturbed to see 20 story buildings being constructed out of mostly cinder blocks (let's hope not many hurricanes make it down here, eh?). Once we got to the small municipal airport, we killed time around there until our tiny prop plane arrived. We're talking approx. 14 seats; we could see out the front of the plane.  Kirstin was quite excited at the prospect of taking this plane, although I think she would have enjoyed it even more if they could have guaranteed the sort of near death experience associated with this sort of plane (she was admiring several junker planes nearby with longing looks earlier).
We safely touched down about an hour later on the tiny airstrip in Bocas Town on Isla Colon (one of the three major islands in Bocas Del Toro). Calling it an airport might be a bit of a stretch. As arranged, there was someone waiting for us from the resort we were staying out, Punta Caracol. I was particularly relieved at the sight of this guy, because that meant we didn't have to worry about anything else at that point for at least another couple of days. I had been worried about whether all of this was going to fall into place from arranging this all sight unseen, but it seemed to be working out (I think that's about when I finally started to relax from the wedding).
After a quick drive through the somewhat dilapidated Bocas town, we hopped onto a boat along with what was apparently the resort's groceries for the evening. The boat ride was somewhat choppy, but we were both grinning too much to notice. We arrived at Punta Caracol, which is a set of little eco-lodges stretched out over a lagoon. We were shown to our room like it was a 5 star hotel in a big city and we settled in. We didn't do much for the rest of the evening, except for laying about the place, drinking our welcome cocktails and reading or staring out over the water. Hard life, I know. For dinner, we just simply walked down the dock to the restaurant and had the meal we'd chosen upon checking in. The shrimp we had was tasty albeit a bit skimpy. Honestly, I was a little uncomfortable at first at this whole luxury vacationing thing, but I suppose I got over it.
Oh yeah, one other thing - I shaved off my goatee before going to bed. There - full disclosure of a change in hair status. |